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Tour review; Washington Post | Quote: | Theater'Les Miz' Still Good To the Last Teardrop
By Peter MarksWashington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 13, 2005; Page C01
Oh, "Les Miz," I thought I was over you. So certain was I that a few weeks ago, when some young adults of my acquaintance asked whether they should come see what's being billed as your absolute, 100 percent guaranteed, no-fingers-crossed last visit to Washington, I blithely told them not to bother.
This was, after all, to be your seventh engagement here since 1986. Seventh time schlepping in that rotating set and all those costumes for downtrodden French people. Another stop on another tour to another town among the 227 cities in 38 countries where "Les Miserables" has played, in English and Spanish and Hebrew and Icelandic and even Mauritian Creole.
By this point in your 20 years of ceaseless globe-trotting, how could you have any life left in you?
Okay, cut now to Saturday afternoon at the National Theatre and a guy on the aisle, with a notebook in his lap and a lump in his throat. For something like the 39,500th time, a Fantine is once again singing of her desolate existence -- "I dreamed a dream of time gone by/When hope was high and life worth living" -- and here I am in Row H with a salty discharge on my cheeks.
Confound you, "Les Miz!" You've still got it!
It's a surprise and a pleasure to report that there's a tremendous amount to admire in the final touring production of this beloved warhorse. "Les Miserables" closed on Broadway two years ago and the producers say they are retiring the last road company as well. The taut valedictory tour leaves the work of creators Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Herbert Kretzmer in splendid shape. The swift, swirling staging by Trevor Nunn and John Caird holds up remarkably well, too, presenting with finely rendered emotional shadings the panoply of characters of Victor Hugo's novel.
Many classic books, from "The Scarlet Pimpernel" to "Dracula," have been adapted as musicals since the success of "Les Miz," but not one has approached it in terms of ardor or artfulness. When one looks at the array of pretenders, "Les Miz" is all the more extraordinary for its ability to splice together an intricate plot and hammer home a few simple, exhilarating ideas about rebellion, reunion and redemption. It has held up so well because it never for a moment forgets that a big show benefits from a heart of comparable dimension.
Oftentimes, a musical of flowery sentiment -- and with the kind of irresistible orphans encountered in "Oliver!" and "Annie" -- falls prey after a long run to a lazy, push-the-buttons mawkishness. But Nunn and Caird and the hands-on caretakers of this tour have not let up on the reins. The show retains an urgent forward thrust. On that famous turntable set that will complete a half-mile's worth of revolutions over the production's nearly three hours, "Les Miz" courses with efficiency through time and space.
As was the formula for so many of the shows minted in the British-inspired era of the mega-musical, "Les Miz" was never a star vehicle. Patti LuPone -- who in the London world premiere originated the role of doomed Fantine, whose daughter Cosette the escaped convict Jean Valjean raises as his own -- is perhaps the best known performer to have been associated with the show. Still, "Les Miz" requires a few powerhouse turns, especially from the actors playing the valiant Valjean and priggish Inspector Javert, the policeman who obsessively pursues Valjean over the decades.
The version at the National gets its potent central performance from Randal Keith, whose passionate, pugnacious Valjean is a worthy successor to the scrappy, heroic figure Colm Wilkinson cut in the original. His pleasingly muscular baritone infuses "Who Am I?" -- the number in which Valjean unmasks himself -- with soulful authenticity, and it electrifies the achingly emotional Act II ballad "Bring Him Home."
Robert Hunt's solid Javert is not drenched quite as satisfyingly in sterile sanctimony as some who have played the part, but his delivery of "Stars," Javert's reactionary ode to moral rectitude, is thoroughly effective. Joan Almedilla, once a touching Kim on Broadway in "Miss Saigon," transforms herself here into a feisty Fantine, one who fully earns our sympathy.
As Marius and Enroljas, the students who, respectively, fall in love with Cosette (Leslie Henstock) and lead the rebellion at the barricades of Paris, Adam Jacobs and Victor Wallace are altogether vibrant presences. And Jennifer Butt and Fabio Polanco portray the dastardly Thenardiers with all the garish and self-mocking loathsomeness one could wish for.
They and a host of other players seem to understand wonderfully well that here, the star of the show is the show. Their sense of discipline underlines that same quality in the score and the direction: One sequence dissolves seamlessly into the next, in much the way phrases in Schonberg's music are introduced and then reinterpreted in later songs. This all comes together in a tender finale that gives "Les Miz" a delicate, tear-stained finish.
It's a sweet thing, to be moved again by the real deal. And how perfectly nice it can be to stand corrected.
Les Miserables , book by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, music by Schonberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Directed by John Caird and Trevor Nunn. Sets, John Napier; lighting, David Hersey; costumes, Andreane Neofitou; musical director, R. Andrew Bryan. With Carrie A. Johnson, Pierce Peter Brandt, Trent Blanton, Charles Hagerty, Jason Kraack. Approximately 2 hours 55 minutes. Through Jan. 21 at the National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Call 800-447-7400 or visit http://www.telecharge.com/ . |
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That would be great.